


Electric Storm

by manic_intent



Series: Electric Storm [1]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-14
Updated: 2012-11-14
Packaged: 2017-11-18 15:10:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/562410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manic_intent/pseuds/manic_intent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[An AU where Tony has Storm's powers, is part of the X-men, and can't seem to stop repeatedly being grounded. ] The incident, Tony would later tell the Professor in his defence, was the fault of sheer logical causality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Electric Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beingevil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beingevil/gifts).



> Written for beingevil's prompt "Thunderstruck, or Electric Storm". Sadly this was the only thing my brain thought of when I read beingevil's prompt. Failed. This is an AU where Tony is a mutant… with Storm's powers. Storm doesn't exist in this 'verse. (To head off any OMGs, Storm is one of my favourite X-men, and I love her, and I do enjoy some Storm/Thor.) Very loosely follows early!X-men movieverse, since I don't actually remember very much of it, where all the X-kids seem fairly young. 
> 
> Because-  
>   
> …young Robert Downey Jr. Seriously.

I.

The incident, Tony would later tell the Professor in his defence, was the fault of sheer logical causality.

Even though, possibly, and here Tony was not in any way admitting liability, that racing Warren Worthington deep in the night over the Rockies had started as Tony's idea, but that had been _exercise_. Besides, what were two semi-disowned young scions of giant corporate empires meant to do on a Saturday night, anyway? 

And when Tony had seen that blonde He-Man cosplayer attack one of his childhood heroes, was he really meant to butt out of it? Because, _Captain America_ , Professor. Oh yeah. Those pants really left absolutely nothing to the imagination in real life, Professor. And don't even let Tony get started on how incredibly _hot_ the cosplayer was, because seriously, for a moment there, he'd thought that the whole shebang had just some sort of male beauty pageant gone creative.

At that point during the mental debrief, Professor Xavier might have closed his eyes for a moment to take in a long, measured breath.

Mission accomplished.

Tony liked to break Professor Xavier's mind gently every so often. It kept him on his figurative toes. Right now, the Professor was watching him with long-suffering patience as Tony plastered on his best, shit-eating grin and Warren scuffed his feet awkwardly in a corner, great big wings huddled behind his back, his broken arm cast into a thick white roll, while an expressionless corporate drone with a receding hairline stood with his arms behind his back, next to the Professor. 

"Thor extended his apologies for injuring Mr. Worthington," Corporate Drone said neutrally. "The Director trusts that you will keep your wards in check in the future, Professor."

"Thank you for providing medical aid to Warren and for escorting them home, Agent Coulson," the Professor said wryly, and waited until Summers had escorted Coulson out of his study before eyeing Tony sternly. "No."

Sometimes having a mind-reader for a teacher was really shitballs. "I was just going to have a _peek_."

"I understand that your father's been called in to SHIELD to consult on the situation," the Professor said quietly, and that was the other thing about telepaths - they always knew the quickest way to pour cold water on anything fun. As Tony deflated, grimacing, the Professor added mildly, "However, I suppose I should commend the two of you for attempting to intervene, even if the result left much to be desired. Our powers _should_ be used to protect others in need."

"Great! So we're not in trouble?" Tony perked up, ignoring Warren's frantic eye-rolling.

"You're both still grounded," the Professor added pleasantly. 

"But we were going to fly everyone to the Maldives tomorrow!"

"Scott can fly the plane. You'll both be remaining in Westchester to mind the premises. Tony," the Professor said gently, "The both of you could have been seriously hurt. It's only a wonder that you were immune to Thor's powers and that his hammer didn't do more damage to either of you. I've been trying to provide all of you with a full set of skills for peacekeeping measures, but you are all terribly young still."

"We understand, Professor," Warren said contritely. Traitor.

"Warren's a traitor," Tony told Rogue afterwards, when he was ~~sulking~~ in the labs working on the holographic platform for the Danger Room project. The Professor had iced even the remotest suggestion of using live rounds for testing and/or science, and Tony had to content himself with BB shot and heavily modified Nerf projectiles. 

"It was your idea," Rogue replied mildly, perched on the workbench with her feet dangling. 

"If you're not going to sympathise with me, leave me alone. Go and make out with Bobby or something. Better yet, make out with Piotr. He's hotter."

"You're just bitchy because you're grounded," Rogue drawled, though she absently fingered the suppression bangles that Tony had made for her as an afterthought during the first week of her arrival. They kept her powers switched off unless she removed them, and although that had earned him Rogue's fast friendship it had also considerably cooled most of the other students towards them: Tony for even making such a thing, and Rogue for wanting to wear it all the time, and now they were pretty much stuck in their own two-person version of a Kool Kids' Club. 

Fuck the others. The Professor had recognised the necessity and Rogue had been overjoyed to tears, but… hell. Tony didn't usually like other kids his age anyway. Brats. Rogue would have done better developing her adolescent crushes on people who were at least ten years older, in Tony's opinion.

Her sad lack of taste in guys aside, Rogue was actually fairly all right as a semi-maybe-best-friend. She could be talked into anything, she had balls, and when she explained things when dropping into her Southern drawl sometimes even the Professor could be persuaded to let them off the hook.

"I can fly to the Maldives myself whenever I want."

"You'll get lost."

"JARVIS has GPS."

"Then you'll get into trouble. End up kidnapped."

"Hello?" Tony scowled, "I just survived going toe to toe with a Norse God. I can handle myself."

"Bobby said that 'Thor' was probably just some delusional hippie who found a magic hammer." 

"Bobby can meet me in the courtyard if he wants his ass handed to him, no problems. If _you're_ here because you want to copy my homework, it's on the other table."

"I'm here because I was worried about you," Rogue scowled, though she moved towards the other table anyway, ha, "And you met Captain America? How hot was he in real life?"

Tony hesitated in the middle of trying to describe exactly how hot Captain America was, and decided, well, the Professor hadn't exactly elaborated very much at all on his No-Intervening moratorium, and surely hacking into the SHIELD CCTV mainframe was pretty harmless.

"I'll show you." 

Later, he would tell the Professor, if he hadn't been so distracted by the losing war on elasticity that Thor's borrowed black shirt was waging over his huge biceps, he wouldn't even have tripped security in the first place. That was probably the best indicator of Thor's apparent divinity: no-one human could seriously be _that_ hot. 

The Professor, however, couldn't be persuaded to take a light view on a mere prank, and in Tony's opinion, extending how long Tony was grounded just because of a harmless hack was rather excessive. Especially since Stark Senior hadn't even bothered to call to tell him off for circumventing Stark Industries' outdated cyber defence systems under the nose of their biggest military client.

II.

Sometimes Tony liked to fly off by himself somewhere, just because he could, out over the ocean and high up where there wasn't anyone else, and call the lightning to his hands. Fuck the Professor and climatic conscience; Tony was riding the wind itself, thunder roared to life at a single gesture, lightning itself danced over his fingers when he wanted it to, and he could paint the sky black with a wave of his hand. All the way up here, with only the storm as his companion, he could forget about the shit deck of cards that life had handed to him by giving him mutant powers.

"Impressive."

Startled, Tony nearly lashed out by impulse - not that it would have hurt the one who had snuck up on him, high up over nowhere. Thor seemed to be keeping himself in the air by spinning his hammer in a slow arc beside him, and he wasn't wearing that awful helmet today, though he had stuck to the crazy medieval dress up. 

"Oh. Hi." Suave, Tony, real suave. "You're Thor, right?" 

Even as Tony's hindbrain threatened to kill the rest of his brain in his sleep if he didn't spit the foot out from his mouth and shut the fuck up, Thor smiled at him, warm and friendly and hell, objectively, Tony knew what an infatuation was, but this? This felt like he was being run over by the express train of Inevitable Tragedy. Especially if Thor turned out to _not_ be a magic hammer wielding hippie, but an actual, real-life mythological figure.

Also, extensive Wikipedia had indicated that Thor was married, with kids, which was just Tony's luck, really.

"Aye. And you are Anthony Howardson. Well met."

Something inside Tony shrivelled a little. "Just 'Tony' will be fine, thanks." 

Oblivious, Thor noted, "Your father is assisting the mortals who seek to undo Loki's plans. He mentioned you." 

"Not in a good way, I suppose."

Thor shrugged, and as he raised a palm, lightning forked down to it, flickering between his thumb to his forefinger before curling into a crackling sphere, floating over his hand. "Being able to call the lightning is a gift. You know this."

"Not always." Tony summoned the tiny ball lightning to himself, cupping it in his palms and willing it to keep stable, but it flickered to his skin and faded, tingling, cold. Surprised, he held out his hands, calling the lightning to him again and it was warm as usual, this time, twisting over his skin, then jumping over to Thor's palm, winking out when he closed it. 

"You were born its master," Thor explained, and there was something soft in his eyes, almost like reverence, "It is alive yet under your will. While I must use other means to bend it to mine."

"Well, um, I'm not sure how much you know about Earth... _Midgard_ , but here, all these tricks are just a matter of being born with a different chromosome." Tony said dryly, "I appreciate the thought, but I think I'll have preferred to be a vanilla human." At least his father could be proud of him then. 

And maybe his mother would still have been alive. Maybe a vanilla human baby's birth would have been easier.

"Why?" Thor asked, clearly puzzled. "Would you prefer to walk the earth as blind as most mortals are? Never knowing what is it like to wear the storm itself as your mantle?"

"I guess if you put it that way." Tony managed a smile, then, impulsively, he put out his palm. "Thanks. I over think things sometimes." 

Thor's grip had an impossible strength behind it that made Tony's knees feel weak. "If you ever have doubt again," he rumbled, and his eyes seemed impossibly blue, like the glacial edges of a summer storm, "Remember how magnificent you are in your element."

Tony was still floating when he made it back to Westchester and snuck into the lab with nobody the wiser. He made a minor breakthrough on holographic touch simulation, fell asleep on the workbench and his notes, and only woke up to Rogue shaking his shoulder roughly.

"Wha-?"

"Remember that lemon-faced agent from SWORD? He's back."

"SHIELD," Tony corrected automatically, then he unstuck his face from the notes as the rest of his brain caught up with his mouth. "What? Why? I didn't even get caught last night!"

"I knew it," Rogue folded her arms. "What did you do?"

"I went for a flight." Tony scrubbed at his face blearily. "I might have met Thor." 

" _Seriously_? What was it like? Did you kiss him?"

"Give me coffee or give me death, don't squeal at me in the morning," Tony moaned, pinching at the bridge of his nose. "JARVIS, bring up the feed from the Professor's study." 

"There's no time. They've been asking for you." 

Facing the prospect of possibly being grounded forever ad infinitum, Tony decided that he couldn't possibly make things worse by washing up and changing first before going to meet his fate. 

Agent Coulson was as expressionless as ever, but the Professor had a tiny frown creasing his forehead. Tony put on his best pre-coffee grin. "Good morning, Professor. And Agent 004, I presume. May I say that it's wonderful how you look exactly the same today as you did before."

"Tony," the Professor sighed. "SHIELD's Director has put forward a personal request for you to be seconded to the SHIELD helicarrier as a junior consultant." 

Tony blinked, startled. "So... I'm not in trouble?"

"Is there any reason that you should be?" the Professor asked dryly, though he looked tired. "SHIELD provides much of the funding for Westchester, Tony, but in my opinion, you're still far too young-"

"I'm twenty," Tony cut in, offended. Almost.

"-to be involved with SHIELD," the Professor continued blithely, with a glance at Agent Coulson, who stayed seemingly non-functional. "So it's up to you-"

"All _right_!"

"-and although your enthusiasm is commendable, I need an express assurance from SHIELD that you will be treated well and returned safely." 

Agent Coulson 2.0 rumbled to life. "You have our word, Professor. Pack your bags, Mister Stark. I will be discussing the details further with your Professor. Pickup will be in an hour." 

Life was looking up, even if Dummy squeaked forlornly from a corner when Tony scanned his lab for anything portable and necessary, and Rogue looked despondent from the workbench. He settled for just his laptop and the augmentation rings that he had been working on, and was rooting through the debris of the other workbench when Rogue asked, "How long will you be away?"

"Don't know. Days? Weeks? We can skype. And I'll come back once a week or so," Tony added, with a slight scowl. "It seems that I'm not exempt from certain classes."

"Okay," Rogue sighed. "Be careful."

"I'm always careful."

"I'll miss you," Rogue admitted, with a sniffle, which was why, between scouring his lab, comforting his semi-best-friend and everything, Tony might have packed fewer shirts than he should have and more socks than he needed, but Agent Coulson made no comment at the crate of stuff from the lab that Piotr lifted into the helicopter. 

He felt a little uncertain about it all when all the students clustered out to watch him go, and had to swallow and look away when the helicopter took off. Agent Coulson sat quietly, giving off the impression that he was not programmed to speak until spoken coherently to, and the ride up into the clouds was done in silence, up until they finally broke through the cloud bank, somewhere just off over Manhattan.

"Holy shit," he breathed, looking over the gigantic machine, the rumble of its engines and the roar of its blades audible even from where they were. He'd been aware of what the helicarrier was, but seeing it in reality-

When he fumbled with his seat belt, Agent Coulson asked, very mildly, "Mister Stark, please stay seated until landing."

"I'm just going to take a quick look, then I'll be back."

"In order to prevent the autotargeting defence systems from peppering you with heat seekers, I will not hesitate to tase you and enjoy landing procedures in peace and quiet." 

"That's child abuse!"

"Hardly. Apparently you are twenty," Coulson said, just as mildly, and Tony was still suspiciously studying Coulson for any marks of Skynet manufacture when the helicopter came in for a landing on the top deck. 

When it was safe to get out, Tony let out a whoop, about to head over and check out what looked like a prototype stealth fighter when Coulson grabbed his elbow firmly and propelled him to the side. SHIELD minions were already picking up his things and trundling off, and Tony's attempt to look contrite only lasted until they walked past one of the massive towers that housed one of the four rotor blades.

"This way, Mister Stark. I'll give you the tour," Coulson said urbanely, as Tony tried to subtly jerk out of his grip.

"I'm already aware of where everything is, Agent Coulson."

"Of course. However, this is a base populated with highly trained and, often, highly strung black ops agents who are more likely to tolerate your antics if they've seen you at least once in my company. Walk with me." 

Tony stayed with Coulson meekly enough as he was shown the barracks, the rec rooms, the observation decks, the gunnery and the engine deck, and was beginning to think that he was thoroughly mistaken that this would have been in any way interesting when Coulson brought him to the vast laboratory deck. 

"This is Tony Stark," Coulson was introducing him to a rather startled looking man with helplessly curly hair in a labcoat, while still holding on to Tony's arm and preventing him from scooting off to examine what looked like a giant reactor core in the main chamber beyond. "Mister Stark, this is Doctor Bruce Banner, popularly known as the Hulk."

Banner winced, but Tony grinned, pleased. "The gamma radiation expert!" 

"Um." Banner somehow managed to look even more bewildered. "Agent Coulson?"

"Think of him as an intern," Coulson said dryly, "The Director would appreciate it if Mister Stark does not accidentally electrocute himself, irradiate himself, or hurt himself beyond repair at any one point while he is in SHIELD custody."

"Well, um," Banner had assumed the look of a deer in headlights. "I haven't, um, had an intern before." 

"Always a first time, Doctor Banner."

"I know how to make coffee," Tony added helpfully, "And your cyclic array needs recalibration."

"About his father..."

"Howard Stark is busy with the demands of his company," Coulson said, neutral as ever, even as Tony stiffened. 

Banner glanced between them both, fidgeting, then he added, "Er, with my... with the Other Guy, I don't think that I'm going to be safe around children."

"I'm _twenty_!" 

"SHIELD has confidence in your self-control, Doctor Banner." Coulson nodded at them both, and left, leaving Banner staring awkwardly at Tony. 

"I, um, guess, you could photocopy something?" Banner said, still looking confused, as Tony wandered over to the array and opened up the circuit tray. "Er, that's SHIELD equipment." 

"It hasn't been set accurately. JARVIS, sync with the mainframe and get today's statistics."

Banner jumped when JARVIS spoke from Tony's wrist. "Syncing." 

"So what are you doing here, Doctor Banner?" 

"I wasn't given much of a choice," Banner said wryly, and gestured at a weird staff that had been suspended in a vacuum case. "They've asked for my opinion on that. But it's hardly part of my usual field of expertise. Doctor Reed Richards is offworld, and I gather that your father's declined assistance." 

"His time's expensive nowadays," Tony muttered flatly. Tony knew that better than anyone. "I'll take a look at it after I fix this for you." 

"Okay, er," Banner looked helplessly around the lab, "Then I guess I have some books on gamma radiation that you could, um, read. Or photocopy."

Tony decided to take pity on Banner. "Let's just leave the 'intern' thing aside for now, okay?"

III.

Tony had always believed in Clarke's Three Laws, but seeing the third one in the flesh was a little daunting.

 _Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic_.

According to Thor's debrief transcript on file with SHIELD, Asgardian technology was far more advanced than Earth's - they'd even managed immortality ages ago, apparently. The staff was made of an alloy of metals that didn't exist on Earth, and somehow linked themselves to their user's thought processes to manipulate the crystal, which, JARVIS informed him, appeared to be some sort of impossible physical manifestation of a perfect, infinitely self-correcting binary code, far beyond even the Golay's twelve-dimensional subspace.

The joy of scientific discovery had blunted the embarrassment of being dismissed as a child by Captain America when he had dropped by to discuss something or other about a 'team' with Banner and Tony's disappointment over the sad lack of Thor around the base. Tony had been hoping to see the Asgardian around, but it seemed that Thor never had occasion to come down to the lab, and apparently was always flying off on his own somewhere.

Guess the no-fly tase zone didn't extend to Norse Gods. Unfair.

Still, after a couple days' observation, Tony had dutifully uploaded his observations and notes to the SHIELD lab feed as Banner asked, and Coulson had promptly reappeared out of nowhere after an hour or so to drag him over to see The Director. 

Tony was rather disappointed to note that The Director's room was not, in fact white on white with white furniture and possibly a guy in a white suit with a white cat, given how everyone referred to SHIELD's head honcho with a healthy blend of respect and pants-wetting fear, but he still felt slightly underdressed in his three-eyed Watchmen smiley shirt and jeans when the Director stared at him thoughtfully through his single eye. 

"I'm going to treat you like an adult," the Director began brusquely, "So answer me like an adult. Deal?"

"Okay?" Tony blinked. He hadn't expected that.

"In your opinion, is that piece of alien tech usable by humans?"

"It's..." Tony hesitated, then he raised his palms, "It's pretty much the most perfect computer that I've ever seen. Self-powered, post-dimensional-"

"I've read your brief, Stark. Answer the question."

"Our current level of tech might be too low to synchronise with it. But given time to study it, I don't believe that it's impossible. It's built to respond to thought processes. There may be a security protocol in place that makes it react only to its master."

"How long will you need to figure it out?"

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before."

The Director frowned at him, but Tony forced himself to stand his ground without looking away, and finally, the Director sighed. "Doctor Richards picked a bad time to go offworld, your father's entrenched in company business, and the best of SHIELD talent couldn't figure out that tech. Some time ago, a few members of SHIELD were... mind controlled on touch by that 'perfect computer', Stark. I want to know if you can figure out how to undo it."

"I can try." Tony thought this over. "Human brains are in essence a set of neural circuits communicating with electrical synapses. Maybe the staff interfered with that. Hacks into the human brain." 

"We're not unfamiliar with similar alien tech. You're cleared for access to the Tesseract files. Keep me updated," the Director nodded. "Dismissed." 

"What's the Tesseract?" Tony asked Coulson, on the way back to the lab.

"A piece of Asgardian tech that Loki stole. As far as we understand it, the Red Skull once used it to power Nazi weaponry." Coulson eyed Tony mildly. "Good work so far, Mister Stark."

"Thanks." Tony blinked, startled. He wasn't really used to praise, and it tended to awkwardly blindside him. "I really appreciate you guys bringing me on board. It's been a blast."

"If you make progress, after all this, I can put a word in for you with the Director," Coulson continued blandly. "SHIELD appreciates talent, and your powers would be an asset rather than a liability."

Tony was, therefore, naturally excited when he told Rogue about his day later, sitting on his bed with his laptop on his knees. 

"I don't know, Tony," Rogue sighed. "I'm happy for you and everything, but something doesn't sit right."

"What doesn't?"

"Why get you on board at all?"

"The Quinjet? The solar array? The-"

"SHIELD funds Westchester. They've been aware of you for a long time, I bet." Rogue fidgeted. "I don't know, Tony. The timing's off. It's just after you met Thor."

"Or maybe Dad just gave them an unequivocal 'no' this morning." Tony didn't mind that the Director might have been happy to settle for the other Stark, when Howard had refused. He'll show them.

"Maybe. I guess I'm just... I'm just worried."

"Well, don't be. How was your day? Slept with Bobby yet? Or Logan?"

" _Ew_!"

As it turned out, Rogue had possibly jinxed everything, and things went to hell rather abruptly. A morning that had started off relatively well, with Tony deciding to make a token effort at usual internship duties by making Dr Banner some coffee had ended up with Tony desperately trying to slow the descent of the helicarrier into the North Atlantic ocean. The possessed agents had attacked. Banner was out of control and nobody knew what had happened to Thor and Tony had never, ever tried to control this much wind before. 

Funnelling wind through the damaged turbines had helped a little, but God, that thing was _heavy_ , and when he finally, after an eternity, managed to get it down into the water without breaking up, he was so _exhausted_ that he was dropping, slipping from the sky, and just before he hit the water, he was muzzily aware that he'd abruptly stopped. 

"You did well, stormchild," Thor murmured into his ear, and because Tony was never at his best when he was exhausted, he might, possibly, have mumbled something utterly embarrassing like "How are you so hot?" before passing out.

IV.

What was more awesome than fighting giant aliens? Nothing, that was what. Tony knew that he might be in trouble with the Professor, possibly, for calling in the other brats from Westchester, but as snotty as Scott Summers the Perfect Boy Scout was during school hours, he and Jean Grey seemed to be doing a great job of herding everyone around, and besides, _aliens_.

Things had gone fairly well, all things considered, with only minor injuries, and they'd occupied a bar afterwards to celebrate, despite Summer's bitchfaced comments about underage drinking, and somewhere around being pleasantly tipsy and watching almost every single female (and some male) classmates hit on an extremely embarrassed Captain America, Tony had ended up on the roof with Thor, his pants down around his ankles and his cock down Thor's throat. Something about celebratory customs, Tony didn't give a fuck, tangling his hands in Thor's thick hair and keening for it like a bitch. 

Thor merely chuckled - asshole - and took him in deeper, until his lips were curved around the root of Tony's cock and his throat closed tight around him and his big, gorgeous hands were pressed over Tony's hips, keeping him still as Thor made a concerted effort to suck Tony's brains out through his dick. Tony might have lasted not very long at all. He blamed his curiosity. The memory of Thor on his knees, cheeks flushed and hollowed, bright blue eyes hard with lust as he took Tony in was possibly seared into Tony's retinas forever.

There was nothing subtle about Thor's kiss, either, afterwards, shoving Tony back against the brickwork as he pushed his tongue into a panting mouth, making Tony taste himself and groan, and hell, Thor was _big_ , stretching Tony's exploring fingers. 

"That's..." Tony managed, before lust led a concerted broadside on his rational abilities and his brain failed him, and Thor laughed, loud and warm. 

"Not tonight. Turn around and press your thighs together." Fingers soiled with his come slipped between his legs, slicking muscle and stroking lightly over his balls before withdrawing, then Tony groaned as Thor shoved between the tight squeeze of his thighs, pressed under his cock, which twitched and tried to get hard again, hell, this was going to be the death of him. Thor's thighs were thick and powerful against his, his thrusts shoving Tony's palms against the brick even though he was braced, and moaning, blissed out, enjoying the slick slide and the jerk of Thor's hips, the rough, gasped curses in another tongue against his ear. When Thor finally came, it was with a bitten-off growl and teeth sunk into his shoulder, and in the distance, strung out on pleasure and dazed, Tony thought that he could hear the distant laughter of the storm.

"Come to Asgard with me, stormchild," Thor said afterwards, totally unconcerned with the mess on their clothes as they sat on the edge of the roof, and Tony blinked, surprised. 

"What... er..."

"I have wanted you since I first saw you. It was a distraction. No, it was almost like a madness. I would have brought Loki home immediately otherwise, to have him safely contained." Thor circled his arm around Tony's waist. "I was resolved to complete my duty, but when I found you playing with the storm... I had to consult Director Fury about Midgardian courting customs in exchange for assisting SHIELD with their war."

Rogue's words swum slowly into focus, and Tony grimaced, making a mental note to make Fury's life a living hell with technology later. No electrical appliance or computer was ever going to work for him again.

"He recommended asking your father for permission."

An explosive, living hell. "Really," Tony said, fascinated.

"That aligned with Asgardian custom, but unfortunately, your father seemed unavailable. I felt that forcing my way into his abode might not be politic."

"It would have been funny as hell." Tony would have wished that he was dead afterwards, but it would have been funny.

"And you seemed to already express a mutual interest in me, so I felt that perhaps it could be appropriate to bypass custom this once," Thor nuzzled his neck, and rumbled with pleasure when Tony eagerly turned to meet him. "Come to Asgard with me. I have heard that you find our technology curious. Perhaps you should study it in greater detail. You can return to Midgard whenever you like to visit your friends."

"That's the second job offer that I've gotten this week," Tony said dryly, though he perked up. More alien tech? And Thor? And a field trip into another world? Where could he sign up? "Maybe you should improve your offer." 

"With pleasure," Thor drawled, and pulled Tony back onto his lap.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed that? Lol.


End file.
